The Chinese women's basketball team won the runner-up in the 2022 World Cup, among which small forward Li Meng is unstoppable, watching her play with a heroic spirit, like a charging general, in the thicket of thousands of troops, in fact, more than 10 years ago there was a player with a style very similar to Li Meng.
She is known as one of the three musketeers of the "golden generation" of Chinese women's basketball, if Chen Nan plays with an aura, Miao Lijie has a domineering, then Bian Lan is arrogant. Bian Lan is like an iron horse and silver gun, a hero who fights the sword in the world, has a tough style on the court, and dares to love and hate outside the court.
However, this "fierce girl" on the basketball court was born in the gentle Jiangnan water town.
Bian Lan was born in 1986 in Yixing, Jiangsu, the hometown of purple sand, China, she has been taller than her classmates since she was a child, when she was 9 years old, the physical education teacher saw her so tall and asked her if she wanted to play basketball, she said that in fact, she didn't even know the basic rules of basketball at that time.
"It seemed like I was just a little taller than everyone else, so I went to learn basketball." Later, she trained with her enlightenment teacher Zhang Yindi in Wuxi Sports School and entered the Jiangsu youth team in 1998.
Two years later she became a member of the national youth team, the turn of the century, in fact, for the Chinese women's basketball is a painful period, the 2000 Olympic Games women's basketball stopped the qualification round, Gong Luming new official took office task is arduous, the first thing he did to make the team younger, boldly use newcomers, Sui Feifei, Miao Lijie, Chen Nan began to write a new chapter in the Chinese women's basketball team.
In the notes of the chapter, only 15-year-old Bian Lan became the youngest national player in the women's basketball team that year, from the city team to the provincial team, from the provincial team to the national youth team, and then to the national team, Bian Lan completed such a "triple jump" in only three years.
"I think my parents thought it would be nice if I could play in the city team, but I never thought I could enter the national team." For a teenager without any sports genes, starting enlightenment training at the age of 9, and becoming a member of the national team at the age of 15, all this is a bit of a dream for Bian Lan.
"Bian Lan has a clear mind, plays more imposingly, controls the ball very firmly, and will make greater progress if he is carefully crafted." This is Gong Luming's evaluation of her back then.
In 2002, the WCBA started, Sui Feifei and Miao Lijie were starry, and the Bayi team was comparable to each other, compared to Bian Lan's Jiangsu team, which was actually limited, but the best newcomer in the first WCBA was still given to Bian Lan, and the 16-year-old helped Jiangsu get the fifth place in the regular season. She was a member of the 2003 Women's Basketball Asian Championship, and Gong Luming is still optimistic about her future.
In 2004, she participated in the Athens Olympics as a substitute, she was still a junior in the team, in the last key game with New Zealand, she watched Chen Luyun and Chen Nan fight until they were injured and left the court, watching Sui Feifei alone on the field, and the first Olympic journey to defeat Bian Lan in the final 6 seconds was over.
In the next Olympic cycle, she went from an unknown substitute to the absolute main force of women's basketball, and Bian Lan, who was just 20 years old in the 2005-2006 season, has won the WCBA regular season MVP, and in four years, the Chinese women's basketball team has grown a lot, and Bian Lan has also become the delicate and beautiful flower of women's basketball.
There was once an old Chinese movie called "Women's Basketball No. 5" that told the growth story of two generations of women's basketball girls, and in 2008, the new generation of women's basketball No. 5 belonged to Bian Lan.
If Miao Lijie is the "women's basketball Kobe", then Bian Lan is the "women's basketball Wade", she can not suffer losses when she can confront the European and American bodies, dribble straight to the basket to meet the opponent is to change direction to score, Bian Lan in the 2008 Beijing Olympics is proud to bloom.
In order to perform in the Olympics, Bian Lan chose to concentrate on recuperation, as a star of the league, the absolute core of Jiangsu, she only played 2 games in the 07-08 season, which is actually a double-edged sword, on the one hand, Bian Lan has been fully rested, injuries can be alleviated, on the other hand, is her state still there?
Because of her excellent physical qualities and dual-position qualities, she is a pioneer who treats herself as a dynamite bag on the offensive end, and on the defensive end she is the defensive iron gate to keep an eye on the top scorer in the opponent's defensive position.
In the first game of the group stage that year, the Chinese women's basketball team met Spain, when the opponent was not weak, both sides wanted to win the opening goal in Wukesong, shooting guard Baltimoro is the number one star in Spain, the task of watching is naturally given to Bian Lan, Bian Lan let Baltimoro score only 5 points in the whole game, and she herself cut down a game-high 15 points and 12 rebounds.
Bian Lan's free throw 23 seconds before the end sealed the victory for the women's basketball team, and she said after the game: "This game is not that I played well, but that the whole team played well."
The women's basketball team was brave, the three musketeers were unsheathed, the Sui Feifei king returned, and the women's basketball team played all the way to the semifinals, and finally lost to Australia to miss the final, but this has created the best record since 1992.
The bronze medal battle faces the European champion Russia, in fact, the Chinese women's basketball team is still only a little away from victory, if it were not for Becky Harmon's strong play in the final stage, perhaps the Chinese women's basketball team really had a chance to reach the podium.
Bian Lan scored 17 points throughout the game and was the team's second leading scorer, evaluating Bian Lan playing with one word - advantage, unfavorable advantage, sharp and sharp, even if the opponent's penalty area is defended by three people, she can carry the basketball as an explosive bag and break in.
After that, with the withdrawal of Sui Feifei, Miao Lijie and Chen Nan gradually slowed down due to age, the women's basketball team continued to be a new leader, looking around the team, the best player is called Bian Lan, she was the MVP of the Asian Games in 2009, and faced her old rival South Korea in the final She helped the women's basketball team win the championship with a clean 14+5+6 all-around performance.
In the 2011-2012 season, Bian Lan joined Zhejiang Chouzhou Bank, and in the regular season she helped the team to an eighth place to reach the playoffs, facing the powerful Shen in the first round, the two sides fought to a crucial tiebreaker, the two sides drew 42:42 in the first half, and Bian Lan was furious in the dressing room at halftime, accusing her teammates of not doing their best to play well.
In the end, Zhejiang won 99-95, and Miao Lijie and Bian Lan both scored 34 points between the two stars, but in the end, Bian Lan had the last laugh, and she was directly tired to the ground at the end of the game, she dragged Zhejiang team to achieve "Black Eight", for which the sponsor rewarded her with a high-end car, and Zhejiang won the WCBA runner-up that season, creating the team's best result.
Just when people thought that Zhejiang would be full of ambition to become the founder of the new pattern of WCBA, a storm ruined Bian Lan's career in Zhejiang.
In 2013, the team invited former national player Li Xin, and at the same time recruited Chen Xiaoli, Wang Jing and other strong players, all signs indicate that Zhejiang will play a big vote this season, when Chen Xiaoli and Wang Jing joined the team and said bluntly: "Because Bian Lan is here, we only came, we all want to use the last career time to win a championship together." ”
But this championship dream lasted only 2 weeks and was shattered, and a boycott left the Zhejiang team with chicken feathers, lost awards and caused the team to die before it even left.
Li Xin is a tough coach, "When dealing with the women's team, I want to infect them with the domineering of men and the feelings of buddies." But she probably didn't expect that there was an equally tough Bian Lan on the team.
As for the reasons for the boycott, the two sides have their own opinions, and Li Xin claimed that Bian Lan and other veteran players played big names.
Bian Lan said that Li Xin repeatedly insulted and personally attacked players during training, which was unbearable.
"I lived to be 43 years old, open and worthy of conscience!" Li Xin's speech is still tough, in fact, she did not have any radical behavior towards Bian Lan, but scolded some young players, many of which Bian Lan brought from Jiangsu back then, "These people are all brought by me, can I not stand up for them." ”
One is the absolute authority of the head coach, the other is the big sister of the dressing room leader, the contradiction between the two seems irreconcilable, "because it is an old player, he also dominates one side on the pitch, and in the past two years, for the team's results, the club and coach have given great concessions in training and management. But after Li Xin came, neither the coaching staff nor the club wanted to promote bad arrogance, so they killed the prestige. The old players themselves can't decide some things, of course, they will point the finger at the coach, which is the real fuse. An insider said.
As a result of the incident, Chouzhou Bank gave Bian Lan and others the punishment of indefinite suspension of pay, training, and competition.
In October 2014, Bian Lan returned to the Jiangsu team, and then at this time due to injuries she failed to recover her best form, 28-year-old Bian Lan came to the critical point of her career, she had gradually changed from the women's basketball bench to the core, as an important member of the "golden generation" to help the women's basketball team return to the Olympic Final Four after 16 years.
However, the conflict with the club made her accused of "playing big cards", and her name did not appear in the list of the 2014 Women's Basketball World Championship, and for many people, the good memories of the Chinese women's basketball team belonging to the 2008 Olympics were finally frozen.
"I like basketball very much, everything I have is given to me by basketball, and I hope that through my own efforts, I can cultivate more excellent juniors." After retiring, he became the coach of Jiangsu women's basketball.
"I don't have a boyfriend yet, but hope to meet a suitable one in the future." You don't need to be too handsome to look, you can't be too hot in personality, and you need to be reasonable. Bian Lan, 20, said in an interview in 2006.
Until 2011, she tied the knot with an officer, Gu Peng, and the two knew each other since they were childhood sweethearts, but this relationship eventually parted ways due to personality problems.
In 2019, Bian Lan met Fujian women's basketball coach Gong Songlin, who was once known as the "Fujian Ball King" and once married the daughter of coach Xiao Guangbi, but eventually ended in divorce, both of them are married for the second time, and two people who have been injured in their marriage finally came together.
In 2021, Bian Lan and Gong Songlin have a pair of lovely twin daughters who are love crystallization, and Bian Lan has also come to live in Fujian, and now she has joined the university to teach and become the head coach of the Miracle Sports Basketball Team of Fuzhou University, and has become a teacher of the Physical Education Department of Fuzhou University.
Bian Lan is not like Sui Feifei who had a glorious and great peak, nor like Miao Lijie and Chen Nan who were summoned in times of crisis, and fought when they came, Bian Lan bloomed and withered, she had her own choices and persistence, but when people remembered her again, they could still remember the strong Bian Lan in the midsummer of 2008.